Greetings,
The United States: The NY Fed’s Nowcast model is downgrading the Q1 GDP growth. And this model is yet to incorporate the recent weakness in retail sales.
Equity Markets: Companies with strong earnings (the Bloomberg Pure Growth Portfolio) have done tremendously well this year.
Rates: Economists continue to raise their forecasts for the Fed Funds rate trajectory.
Capital Economics sees an even steeper rise in rates over the next two years. The Fed will then be forced to cut rates as the economy slows.
The Eurozone: New car registrations in the Eurozone periphery are rising quickly.
Energy Markets: Here is the latest IEA forecast for the global crude oil supply balances.
Cryptocurrency: Short-sellers are circling Overstock which rallied dramatically last year after its apparent involvement with blockchain technology.
Credit: Leveraged loan spreads have tightened just as default rates pick up.
Food for Thought: The following 50 countries have the highest ‘happiness’ index (with Finland at the top – see story).
And these are the 50 countries with the lowest scores.
Immigrants in each country are as happy as the native-born population.
Have a great weekend!
Edited by Joseph N Cohen
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Thanks to Josh Marte (@joshdigga), Matt Garrett (@MattGarrett3), Joseph Cohen (@josephncohen), Ycharts.com, S&P Global, and Moody’s Investors Service for helping with the research for the Daily Shot.
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